WALLACE.
* * * * *
_Rose Hill, Dorking. January 17, 1877._
My dear Darwin,--Many thanks for your valuable new edition of the
"Orchids," which I see contains a great deal of new matter of the
greatest interest. I am amazed at your continuous work, but I suppose,
after all these years of it, it is impossible for you to remain idle. I,
on the contrary, am very idle, and feel inclined to do nothing but
stroll about this beautiful country, and read all kinds of miscellaneous
literature.
I have asked my friend Mr. Mott to send you the last of his remarkable
papers--on Haeckel. But the part I hope you will read with as much
interest as I have done is that on the deposits of Carbon, and the part
it has played and must be playing in geological changes. He seems to
have got the idea from some German book, but it seems to me very
important, and I wonder it never occurred to Sir Charges Lyell. If the
calculations as to the quantity of undecomposed carbon deposited are
anything approaching to correctness, the results must be important.
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